The greatest places in the world to drink beer

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The front door at Gaststätte Lommerzheim, Cologne’s most charismatic pub, has barely shut before it swings open again. A middle-aged couple hurry in, share a joke with the blue-shirted bartender and weave their way between tightly packed tables in search of seats. They’ll be lucky. It’s just gone 6pm on a Wednesday but the place is full of customers contemplating fist-thick pork chops and slim, cylindrical glasses of Kölsch, the pale, delicately floral beer that is native to this Rhineland city.

If you want a genuine taste of Cologne, this is where you need to come, and Päffgen Kölsch, the only beer available here, is what you drink. Well, maybe. You could go to one of the many other great Cologne pubs and brewery taps selling different brands, I suppose, but the key point is this: if you’re visiting this city, you won’t get the full experience unless you’ve had a Köbes – a Cologne waiter, noted for dispensing beer and attitude – plant a foam-topped glass of golden Kölsch in front of you.